Management Team

Michael J. Pellini, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Pellini joined Foundation Medicine as President and Chief Executive Officer in May 2011, bringing a breadth of experience in life sciences and the clinical diagnostics and laboratory industries to the company. Dr. Pellini came to Foundation Medicine from Clarient, a GE Healthcare Company, where he held the position of President and Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Pellini joined GE Healthcare through the integration of Clarient, Inc., where he worked with the company’s leadership team to drive critical regulatory and reimbursement strategies in parallel with the development and commercialization of multiple diagnostic tests. Dr. Pellini’s leadership was instrumental in building Clarient to the highly successful acquisition by GE Healthcare in October 2010.

Prior to his tenure with Clarient, Dr. Pellini served as Vice President, Life Sciences at Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. where he leveraged his business and medical expertise to explore new market opportunities and to support Safeguard’s partner companies. Prior to Safeguard, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Lakewood Pathology Associates, a national molecular and pathology services company, which was acquired by Water Street Healthcare Partners in 2006. Prior to that, Dr. Pellini was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at BioAdvance, where he was responsible for reviewing and evaluating early-stage life science companies. He also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Genomics Collaborative, Inc., a Boston-based biotech firm that was acquired by SeraCare Life Sciences, Inc. in 2004.

Dr. Pellini received a BA from Boston College, an MBA from Drexel University and an MD from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Pellini serves as a member the Boston College Technology Council, the Executive Committee of the Jefferson Medical College Alumni Association, and the Board of Trustees for the Coriell Institute of Medical Research.

Kevin Krenitsky, MD, Chief Operating Officer

Dr. Krenitsky joined Foundation Medicine in June 2011, bringing 15 years of experience in building and managing global diagnostic and biotechnology operations to the company. He joins Foundation Medicine from Enzo Clinical Labs where he served as president. In this role, he instituted a comprehensive operational plan that resulted in re-accreditation by the College of American Pathologists and led the introduction of numerous U.S. FDA-approved esoteric tests as well as several new laboratory developed test rollouts, all of which led to significant revenue growth during his tenure.

Prior to Enzo Clinical Labs, he was chief executive officer at BioServe Biotechnologies, a global biotechnology company specializing in processing genetic diagnostic tests, and before that, he served as chief executive officer at Parkway Clinical Laboratories, a clinical diagnostic lab providing comprehensive routine and esoteric testing. Before joining Parkway Clinical Laboratories, Dr. Krenitsky held multiple senior level positions within Genomics Collaborative, Inc. (a SeraCare Life Sciences Company), a full-scale clinical and genomics research company.

Dr. Krenitsky received a BS in business management from the University of Scranton and an MD from Jefferson Medical College.

Ronald Collette, Chief Information Officer

Ronald D. Collette assumed the role of Chief Information Officer for Foundation Medicine in January of 2012, bringing 25 year of professional experience in information technologies, including work for various Fortune-500 organizations such as Fluor Corporation, Pacific Life, Countrywide Mortgage, and the Resolution Trust Corporation. Before joining Foundation Medicine, he was the Chief Information Officer for Clarient, a GE Healthcare Company. Prior to joining Clarient, he was a founding partner of the highly regarded Traxx Consulting Inc.; a boutique consultancy focused on information security, team development, and technical architecture.

Mr. Collette is a regular speaker at a number of security and IT related events such as International Standards Organization (ISO) conference, SecureWorld Expo and InfoSeCon. He is also a regular columnist and research analyst for Computer Economics. Mr. Collette has co-authored two books on information security “The CISO Handbook: A Practical Guide to Securing Your Company" and the companion publication "CISO Soft Skills: Securing Organizations Impaired by Employee Politics, Apathy and Intolerant Perspectives." Both of these books are utilized as course material for numerous advanced education and university masters programs on security leadership. His contribution to the information technology industry is represented by numerous publications, papers and presentations.

Mr. Collette holds a BS in economics with minors in accounting and business administration; with post graduate work in software engineering.

Maureen T. Cronin, PhD, Senior Vice President, Research Collaborations

Maureen Cronin's industry career spans more than 20 years at biotechnology companies dedicated to translational science and genomic applications, where she has worked in all aspects of research and development of clinical diagnostic tests based on genomic biomarkers.

Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Dr. Cronin was vice president, translational research at Genomic Health, Inc., where she led research efforts to support the development of clinical diagnostic tests for specific clinical indications based on genomic biomarkers. Previously, she was senior director, applied genomics of ACLARA BioSciences, where she led a team responsible for initiating a range of DNA and RNA based genetic and genomic applications. Earlier in her career, Dr. Cronin spent seven years at Affymetix, a photolithographic DNA microarray company, where she managed contract research programs focused on developing hybridization array assays for specific genomics applications with corporate partners including Hewlett-Packard Bioscience Products, Roche Molecular Systems and GlaxoWellcome.

Dr. Cronin has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed publications, and has received a number of academic awards, honors and fellowships including the NIH/NIDA, SIBIR Phase I, Phase II and STTR awards. Dr. Cronin received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, UCSD School of Medicine, and her BS and MS from the University of California, Davis, Department of Animal Physiology.

Vincent A. Miller, MD, Senior Vice President, Clinical Development

Dr. Miller joined Foundation Medicine in October 2011 after nearly 20 years at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center where he served as an Attending Physician. His work in clinical and translational research in lung cancer culminated in observations and collaborative efforts critical to identification of EGFR sensitizing and resistance mutations. He is considered a world’s expert in lung cancer and clinical trial design and interpretation. Dr. Miller has authored and co-authored numerous abstracts, reviews, and peer-reviewed articles, which have appeared in such journals as Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Miller has received the prestigious American Cancer Society Clinical Oncology Career Development Award and the Louise and Allston Boyer Award, and was most recently recognized by the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation with the 2011 Thierry Jahan “A Breath Away from the Cure” award for his efforts and contributions to lung cancer research. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.  

Dr. Miller, a National Merit Scholar, received a BA in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was honored as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar, and an MD at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. He completed an internship and residency, and then served as Chief Medical Resident in Internal Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, and subsequently a fellowship in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Gary Palmer, MD, JD, MBA, MPH, Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs and Commercial Development

Dr. Palmer is a medical oncologist with a career spanning three decades in oncology, initially as a clinician in both the academic and community settings and then as a biotech industry executive with diagnostic and therapeutic experience.

Dr. Palmer joins Foundation Medicine from On-Q-ity, where he was chief medical officer and head of development for DNA repair marker development and circulating tumor cell technology. He also served as vice president of medical affairs at Genomic Health, Inc., where he was instrumental in the commercialization of the Oncotype DX Breast Cancer Assay. Prior to Dr. Palmer’s tenure with Genomic Health, he held leadership positions at Kosan Biosciences and Salmedix, Inc. He also spent five years at Amgen, Inc. where he was involved in the clinical development and commercialization of Neupogen, Neulasla and Aranesp.

Prior to joining industry, he served as director of the Medical Breast Service at the University of California Davis Cancer Center and chief of medical oncology at Mercy Health System, Sacramento.

Dr. Palmer received a BA from Yale University and an MD from the Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine training at the Boston City Hospital and his oncology fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He also holds an MBA from the University of California, an MPH from the University of California, Los Angeles and a JD from Concord University. He is a licensed physician and a member of the State Bar of California.

Jeffrey Ross, MD, Medical Director, Interim Head of Pathology and Molecular Diagnostics

Jeffrey S. Ross, MD is a leader in the field of molecular diagnostics, having received a number of academic awards, been awarded three patents and authored more than 600 peer-reviewed scientific articles and abstracts, four textbooks and numerous book chapters in the fields of pathology, molecular diagnostics, oncology and translational cancer research.

Dr. Ross is the Cyrus Strong Merrill Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Albany Medical College, where he directs an extramurally funded research laboratory in molecular pathology. Between 1999 and 2004, Dr. Ross served as Scientific Fellow and Head of Molecular Pathology at Millennium Pharmaceuticals before co-founding Syfr, Inc. an RFID Specimen Management and IHC/ISH/FISH autostainer company. Prior to that Dr. Ross served as Medical Director for Managed Care for Roche Biomedical Laboratories and Laboratory Corporation of America.

Since 2000, Dr. Ross has been a member of the NIH Clinical Oncology Study Section. He serves on the editorial boards and reviewer lists of numerous scientific journals and is Associate Editor for Basic Science of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology. He has served in multiple leadership positions for the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the College of American Pathologists, the International Academy of Pathology, the Association of Pathology Chairs and the American Society of ClinicalOncology.

He is a graduate of Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio and The State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine in Buffalo, New York. He served as an intern resident and fellow in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jason Ryan, Vice President, Finance

Mr. Ryan joined Foundation Medicine in May 2011 and brings over 12 years of financial and operations experience in emerging life science companies. Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Mr. Ryan led the finance and strategic planning functions of Taligen Therapeutics (acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals), Codon Devices, and Genomics Collaborative (acquired by SeraCare Life Sciences). He began his career at Deloitte & Touche.

Mr. Ryan holds a BS in economics from Bates College and an MBA from Babson College, and earned his CPA in Massachusetts.

 

 

Phil Stephens, PhD, Vice President, Cancer Genomics

Dr. Stephens joined Foundation Medicine in March 2011, bringing more than a decade of experience in cancer genomics to the company. Dr. Stephens is a world-renowned expert in next-generation sequencing and cancer genome analysis and has authored numerous publications in Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Cell and other high-profile journals.

Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Dr. Stephens held various senior research positions during his 11-year tenure with the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute under the direction of Professor Michael Stratton. During this time, Dr. Stephens was a member of the team that sequenced the first two comprehensive melanoma and lung cancer genomes, and was co-lead author in the discovery of BRAF in melanoma and ERBB2 in lung cancer.

Dr. Stephens received a PhD from Oxford University.